Sharing concerns about the wellbeing of children & young people

When a practitioner who is not the Named Person or Lead Professional has information about a child’s well-being indicating that the child is not in need of protection, but he/she may be in need of additional support, the sharing of relevant information with the child’s Named Person or Lead Professional is likely to be in the child’s interests. 

In these circumstances, the practitioner should:

• Engage with the child and parents to consider the 5 Questions:

1. What is getting in the way of this child’s well-being?
2. Do I have all the information I need to help this child?
3. What can I do now to help this child?
4. What can my agency do to help this child?
5. What additional help, if any, may be needed from other agencies?

• Seek consent to share the relevant information with the child’s Named Person or Lead professional. This should be clearly recorded.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
• Where the informed consent of the young person or parent has been given, the practitioner should share the relevant information with the child’s Named Person or Lead Professional so that coordinated help can be offered to the child if needed. (This is likely to be most effective when the child or parent is also directly involved in the sharing of information).                                                                                    
• Information shared and subsequent actions taken must be recorded in accordance with agency guidance. Following discussion with the Named Person or Lead Professional, significant information should be recorded on the standard Child Concern Form which is forwarded to the Named Person, Lead Professional and/or Social Work as agreed.                                                                                         
• Health Staff should use the Health Child Concern Form record concerns and share with health colleagues as well as the Named Person, Lead Professional or Social Work as agreed.                                     
• In Education, following discussion with the Designated Child Protection Co-ordinator, school staff should use Form 1 to record their concerns and forward this to the Designated Child Protection Co-ordinator for the school.                                                                                                                                     
• A parent or young person may choose not to agree to information sharing for a range of appropriate reasons. The practitioner may assist the individual/s to consider the relevance of sharing information to their particular circumstances, while respecting the decisions of the young person or parent.                  
• In the absence of agreement to share information, the practitioner should monitor the situation if the concern persists. This may include seeking advice about whether the nature of the concern has become such that it falls within a category that may be shared without consent in the interests of child or others.                                                                                                                                               
• The reasons for a decision to share without consent should be recorded, following Child Protection or other relevant procedures. Shared information should be relevant to the concern and proportionate. It is good practice to inform the child and parents of the decision to share and explain the reasons why. There may be exceptional circumstances in which this is not possible or in the child’s interests and this should also be recorded.